TOPIC: Winter n Spring Trapping 2016

That brings back some good ole memories for me Hobbler...

I did a lot of trapping back in the 80's and just loved it. Did a lot of fox calling too, loved to collect those grey fox, red's and the occasional bobcat by calling them in. That is some of the most exciting hunting I know of.

I trapped a little of everything around here, but our big pay off critter was the coon. We caught 35 coons in one night on the Duck river back in the 80's - that was my best single night ever.

We caught a lot of muskrats too, and I have found many a rat that I caught in a steel trap, that the pelt had been completely ruined by a mink.

Mink love muskrats, and usually eat first the neck area on the rat. Blood thirsty critters.

Looks like the mink you caught was taking a rat back home for supper when he got caught himself.

Congrats on a very good year on the trap line. Good luck on the price too. It is a lot of work, like seng hunting, and it sure would be nice to get a decent price for what you accomplished.


TNHunter

Thx TN we have lost at least 25 rats to the stinky mink. Prices are down from last yr. Beaver are holding good but otter r gonna b put up n froze for next yr not selling for $8 a otter that's nuts.

Nice pics Hobbler!

nice job hob..with the price of fur being way down all I did was a little animal damage control trapping this year..

That's mainly what were doing but nobody trapping around here farmers n home owners want the beaver gone so phone is ringing off the hook

Very nice hobbler. Great to see somebody still traps. I like the two rats in one 330. Nice. What kind of setup is that on one of those 330s? The extra bar? Does that make a tighter closure to help put them down quicker?

Jimsenger that's actually a mink n a rat he was taking his dinner to a safe place to eat lol. The other is a MB 1216 about 6\" wider than a 330 about the same in height. The extra bar is like u said makes no space at all. They are one mean trap. In the one pic u can c that was just his front foot in the trap they r supper fast.

Ok. Thanks for clarification. So much for the safe place! Ha! There are a lot of mink around here too. I hope they're paying better than when I last trapped in 2010 when I was layed off. I got one tanned. There's so many rats where I trapped that a lot have small bite holes from each other, doing the territorial thing. Haters from hollywood have no idea how miserable they have made the animal's lives, taking away the thinning process. Congrats on that nice beaver harvest too. Best we ever did was 36 in a season. And thanks for sharing the pics and info. That 1216 trap looks like a serious beast of a tool. I have never seen nor heard of it. Is it American made?

The rats r starting there bitting crap now but gonna b cold for a bit so hope it slows them down two yrs ago n last yr fur was great dropped big time this yrs rats were going for $12 this yr $3 that's trapping. Those 1216 r 100% American made I get alit of my stuff from f n t trapping supply everything u could need for any kind of trapping n far prices. There b some more pics soon put in 49 new sets today.

Good luck. Nothing better than the excitement of checking new sets. Sometimes it's boom, sometimes it's bust. That would be nice to get $12/rat. I was getting $5 in '10. Like you say, the price fluctuates wildly. However, the getting in the water is priceless! Water trapping is all I ever liked. Easy to cover scent under water, and I just love the water critters. Funny how you break ice at every trap and do everything bare-handed (putting hands in icewater) and your hands get so hot they're steaming. If it gets stuck to the metal, just dip it in the water to unstick it. Gottaluvit!